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4/15/2015 – Generate a Public and Private Key

Posted by Jamison on 15 04 2015.

With the advancement of modern security systems comes the ever genius ways of hackers and criminals to steal valuable data. Aside from putting antivirus tools to manage virus and other forms of attacks that are entering your system, another good way to reinforce protection to your website is to use public and private keys. This article will show the importance of this tool and the ways on how to generate keys to boost your online security. Read on.

How to generate public and private keys

Go to your home page and click the Manage OpenPGP Keys.

Click the Add Key button.

Enter the necessary information that the program needs in order to start making the key. Information that you need to provide are your name, email address, comment/nickname and type your answer in their corresponding fields.

Enter your password for the key you are about to make and place it in the Key Password text box.

In the Expiry date text box, enter the expiry date of your key. Yes, with this tool, you can even boost your protection by putting an expiration date. Enter the numbers of your date by in the corresponding fields. Y is for year; M for month; W for week; and D for day.

You can also choose a particular size of your key in the Key Size field. 1024 bytes is the regular size.

To finish, click the Generate Key button. Wait for a few moments to display the key you have generated. Some keys may take minutes to appear depending on the size you choose.

How to edit a key

You can also edit the key if you wish to change few information. Here’s how you do it.

Go to the homepage and click on the Manage OpenPGP Keys.

Click the Edit button located beside the key you want to modify and then make the necessary changes.

How to import keys

One of the best features of this tool is that you can import keys directly to your server and the imported keys will be treated as a trusted key by your website. To start importing a key, here’s how you do it.

Go to the homepage and click on the Manage OpenPGP Keys button.

Click the Import Key button.

Cut the key from one text file and paste it to the available text box and then click the Import button.

You can also edit your imported key by following the same instructions on how to edit a key.

How to delete a key

If you no longer need of a key—be it private or public, you can always delete it anytime you want. Follow these simple steps to do so.

Go to homepage and click the Manage OpenPGP Keys button.

Click the Delete button located beside the key you want to remove and that’s pretty much it.

You can share your public key to anyone who are using your server; however, you can also make a private key intended only for those whom you trust in managing places in your website that contains valuable data.